Let's Power This Thing Up, Day 1, Part 2

Posted on Sun Feb 18th, 2024 @ 4:16am by Lieutenant JG T'lenn & Ensign Dani Harper & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Lieutenant Jules Mundy
Edited on on Sun Feb 18th, 2024 @ 9:08pm

2,452 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Artifact or Artifiction
Location: The Alien Vessel
Timeline: MD 1, 1900 hours, After Part 1

After Mundy was able to continue to restore enough power to get basic life support moving throughout the ship, Dani was shifting her focus to trying to figure out how to understand the language that people who owned the ship spoke.

"There's usually a base language file in most ship's computers like this for one reason or another. Either to translate for other ships, or to recognize commands." Ghiram started flashing his tricorder in front of the crystals, saving images of each of the etched symbols on each one. "Lightning bolt is definitely power- this one seems to be shields, that looks like the ship surrounded by a circle. We've got lights, too. There's a few of these that aren't as obvious." He looked over at one of the display monitors. "These look more like characters in their language. These could be abbreviations, numbers, or words meaning almost anything." He sat the tricorder down on a flat surface and let it take passive scans while he walked over to Ensign Harper to see if he could be any help.

"Right, T'lenn has done even better than that, and has been translating some of their script for the last week or so," Dani reminded him. "But no one knows what the language is supposed to sound like, and the Universal translator doesn't have enough input to be fluent in the written text. This vessel predates even early versions of Federation Standard by 1,000 maybe 2,000 years?" Dani looked at one of the data crystals. "I wonder if we could put T'lenns work onto one of these?"

Dr. Jackson walked over with one of the bags of equipment he had brought with him. "Now is as good of a time as any to try this out, I suppose." He opened the bag and took out a small machine that had slots on top that appeared to fit the rectangular data crystals. "We've encountered this data technology before and have tried replicating a way to communicate with a computer should we find one, but haven't had the opportunity to test it yet."

Daniel put a blank data crystal in one of the slots. "Ensign Harper, you can transmit the translations now, also the Federation Standard Language Database. We'll see if this works."

"Okay," Dani spoke almost to herself as the PADD found the device that Daniel had set up and began transmitting the information. "Ghiram, any guesses as to whether it matters where in the panel this goes once the data crystal is ready?"

"Not yet, but it definitely matters- Mundy had to try a few before it started working." He picked up the tricorder and started from the transmitter. "But if we follow the wiring from the transmitter to..." Ghiram walked in a slow circle around the room. "there, this socket should connect to the data crystal."

"Alright then," Dani said as the data transfer was finishing up. "Lets see if this does anything then." Dani carefully slid the data slide into the port that was meant to fit it."

"Dr. Jackson, anything else?" Dani asked before standing up.

"Just push the drawer back into place and probably close the panel. Maybe give it a minute," Daniel suggested as she studied the interface carefully.

Dani looked up at Ghiram and put everything back into place carefully.

"It seems to be working," Daniel stated noting that the alien script was populating and Federation Standard words were being matched with the scripted.

Dani smiled. She looked at Ghiram and tapped her comm. =^= Ensign Harper to the away team. We have progress with the ship's computer. It's learning Federation Standard as I'm talking to you right now." =^=

"Okay," Dani said to no one in particular, "let's see if we can find anything that will help Mundy out." She began working with the first terminal that they had activated and tried to see if she could access anything that would help engineering and operations figure out the power grid on the ship.

- - - - - - -

Thankfully while en route to engineering the team received word that life support was slowly returning to some of the decks on the ship, but to maintain caution while Lieutenant Mundy kept an eye on the power supply.

When Nash, Thisbe, and Rose finally made their way to engineering on Deck 10 they were confounded once again, this time by the open floor plan. The ship was large, and engineering seemed to take up the bulk of Deck 10. There were five 'arege "cores" of some type. Large cylinders wrapped in a metalic casing, with the occasional bronze colored detailing indicative that there was likely a hidden automated function near the area. The cylinders were evenly spread out throughout the deck. Each had a control panel near it.

There were more control panels along the walls, and the occasional terminal in the middle of the floor. It was mostly likely not random, but without much context, the unfamiliar design seemed random to an outsider.

One thing that Thisbe and Rose noticed right away was that near the center of the room there appeared to be one of the generators that T'lenn had told them to be on the look out for. It seemed dead at the moment, but they knew what to look for to try to get it operational again.

Thisbe opened her Comms.

=/\= Commander Winters? Myself and Ensign Wilson have found a generator. Should we start there?" She asked. He had gone to find the core.

=/\=Definitely a good starting point. Check the interface, see if it can be accessed, if you can even understand it. If we need to link up a power module from Astrea we can do that, too. Keep me updated on your progress. Nash out. =/\=

Thisbe nodded.

=/\=Yes, sir.=/\= She signed off, and then opened her kit. "Say, do you have a power decoupler?" She asked Rose. The two Ensigns got to work, opening the panel to find the generator's power system and wiring. "If we can get this up, wouldn't that be COOL?" Thisbe was now on her knees, using her hands and a crowbar to attempt to open the machine. It seemed to be welded shut, made of some kind of material she wasn't familiar with. "Any ideas?" She asked her companion.

Nash continued rooting around other areas on deck 10, trying to pin down the vessel’s computer core. The corridor curved around to the right for about five meters, then suddenly came to an abrupt dead end at an oval shaped door. It opened as Nash approached the threshold. Inside was a very large room, also oval shaped, with more of the metallic cylinders clustered in the middle of the room.

He opened his tricorder to scan the cluster. No energy readings, radiation, or any indication of power. Nash tried varying the EM bands, but nothing still registered. “Damn,” he said to himself. “What do these crystals do?”

=/\= Nash to Mundy. Are you making any headway with the environmental systems? I’m standing in front of what looks like to be the central processing core, but I can’t make heads or tails of it. No energy signatures, power readings, or anything. Can you crack the code with the crystals?=/\=

=/\= Mundy to Nash. Crack the code? Not yet. All I know, so far, is that it takes a certain combination of crystals to power different panels. But I believe that I am close to getting life support running throughout the ship. At this point it's a matter of trial and error. Once I have life support up and running, I can give you a hand with the core. =/\=

Mundy kept salvaging crystals to try to get the environmental systems working. It was starting to get harder and harder to find working crystals, most were burnt out or damaged. He had enough to get another panel working, but the symbols on this one meant nothing to him, so he pulled out the working crystals and moved to another panel to try again.

All teams heard Dani's voice over the comms, =^= Ensign Harper to the away team. We have progress with the ship's computer. It's learning Federation Standard as I'm talking to you right now." =^=

Winters still crouched over what appeared to be a second generator, though he couldn't be sure. It was another group of cylinder clusters, though a bit smaller than the one in engineering and saw a few of them flicker with life. “Way to go, Jules,” he said to himself. He hoped once the rest of the systems came online, he’d be able to decipher how to find propulsion and the shield grid. =/\=Nash to T’Lenn. I could use some kind of translation matrix for these crystalline generators. How’s it coming down there?=/\=

=^= Commander Winters, this is Ensign Harper. If you access a nearby terminal you should be able to tell the terminal to operate in Federation Standard. The interface is holographic and can be operated by haptics or voice. You should be able to navigate to what you need fairly easily. Dr. Jackson is offering to come down if there are issues with the translation transferring to engineering. =^=

=/\= Thanks for the heads up, Dani. I was so fixated on the tricorder scans, I almost missed it. Working on it now. Should have shield status and engine schematics in a couple minutes. I’d love to hear this baby purr. =/\=

Thisbe looked up. "Excellent!" She shouted, and mad-dashed for a nearby console. Indeed, she was able to get it online, and tell it to run scans. =/\=Commander Winters. I have the emergency access console running scans. Anything else?=/\=

=/\=I would be really interested to see what these people look like. See if you can find a crew manifest or database or something to tell us more about who they are. Or were. You could say this is a kind of first contact situation; at least on our end. Thanks, Thisbe. Well done. =/\=

Thisbe replied. =/\=Yes, sir! I'll do my best.=/\=

Oh no. She was unsure of working on a project of this magnitude on her own. This was her very first posting-there hadn't even been time for a shakedown cruise for her. She'd foregone a cadet cruise, as well, for advanced training. Still, she couldn't panic. She took a breath, and looked around. Oh, an operations console!!

Thisbe made her way back into to the large open floor plan of main engineering. where the generator that they were working on was waiting. She walked back into the vast space again. No walls, or corridors or safety railings breaking up the space. All of the terminals lined the outer walls - the only real demarcations in the room were the spaced out columns that likely hid controls or power systems of some type. The generator was there, but...it wasn't a Fleet standard ship like she was used to. She approached a console, and tried to turn it on. It was running, but the language was one she didn't understand. She tapped her Comms. =/\=Ensign Harper, this is Ensign P'rar. The Command consoles in engineering aren't running in Standard. Is the Linguist with you?=/\= She asked.

She radioed then to Commander Winters. =/\=Commander? Sir...we have a bit of an...issue. Can you report to engineering?=/\=

This was way out of her pay grade…

=/\= Ensign, what did I say about calling me that? You can call me Nash. I’m on my way.=/\=

Nash pocketed his tricorder and left engineering. He wasn’t sure what was happening with Thisbe, but he would soon find out.

=^= "We'll be right there =^= Dani responded.

Doctor Jackson picked up his bag that included the data transfer conversion equipment and followed Ensign Harper to Engineering. The two of them weren't aware that that anything unusual was going on with Ensign P'Rar, so while they walked at a steady pace, they had not been given a sense of urgency. Commander Winters was already there when the two arrived.

"We'll be able to get this up and running," Dani said optimistically. "Dr. Jackson has a way to input our data manually into the computers here," she explained as she bent down to open a panel with the data crystals. Meanwhile Daniel began putting the language data on a second data slide. Daniel handed the finished data crystal over to Dani who found the proper slot and put it in place.

Daniel walked over to where Winters and P'Rar were standing. "That worked on the Bridge, should take care of it here. Bound to be some glitches at first. Everything okay over here?" Daniel asked. He looked at Ensign P'Rar with some concern.

P'rar shook her head. "No...um...um. It's...not in Standard," she said. She turned pale. "Is it warm in here??" She said. "Excuse me," she said again, turning around to find somewhere to vomit. Her vision began to tunnel, and her heart raced. "It's so dark in here, too," she said. She might cry. Oh no. "Commander..um...Nash?? I think I need a doctor..." her brown eyes closed and she passed out.

Winters ran toward her and caught her before her body hit the deck.

=^= “Fuck! Thisbe.. Thisbe! Nash to Astrea! Medical emergency! Beam P’Rar directly to sickbay!” =^=

"I'll go with her, make sure everything is okay," Daniel offered. He handed Dani his two bags with the equipment he brought over. "Between you and T'lenn you should be able to figure it out. Comm me if you have any questions," he told her as Thisbe dematerialized from the transporter taking her to Sickbay.

Remy's voice answered back, =^= Johansen to Away Team, what's going on over there?" =^=

Daniel responded back, "Ensign P'Rar had a medical event, leading to a loss of consciousness, Sickbay can tell you more. No other signs of sick crew. I was going to report back in and check on her. Ensign Harper and Lieutenant T'lenn are competent to run things over here."

Remy spoke again, =^= Let's have all non-essential personnel report back to the ship right away. Commander Vila, Commander Winters we've done enough over there for one evening. Have your teams get to a good stopping point and then send them back as well. It's getting late, and we don't need a tired crew making mistakes. Let's get everyone back. The ship will still be there in the morning. Dr. Jackson, bring the first group back with you. Commander Johansen out. =^=

[END]


Commander Remy Johansen
Commanding Officer
USS Astrea

Commander Vila Lorut
First Officer
USS Astrea

Lt. Commander Nash Winters
Chief Engineer (2nd Officer)
USS Astrea

Lieutenant JG Jules Mundy
Chief Operations Officer
USS Astrea

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